EACODES.FMT


    DETAILED CODE FILE FOR DEFINITIONS OF BEA COMPONENT ECONOMIC AREAS
          AND THE FINAL REDEFINITIONS OF THE BEA ECONOMIC AREAS

                            February, 1995  

The file EACODES.FIN includes 3,661 lines of data.  These records include
codes, names, and other information for 3,141 counties (all those summarized
from  the 1990 Census of Population), for 348  Component Economic Areas
(CEA's), and  for the 172 BEA Economic Areas. The file is sorted by economic
area code (a geographic ordering), by CEA (alphabetically) within each
economic area, and by county (alphabetically) within each CEA. Each record
has six numerical fields followed by a 58-character area name.  The numerical
fields, in order, are: 

           the 3-digit economic-area code,
           a blank and the 4-digit CEA code,
           a blank and the 5-digit State/County FIPS code,
           a blank and a 2-digit area-type code,
           a count of the number of CEA's included (3-digit field), and
           a count of the number of counties included (3-digit field).    

The 3-digit economic area code was assigned after the areas were defined,
beginning with 1 in northern Maine, continuing south to Florida, then north
to the Great Lakes, continuing in a serpentine pattern to the west coast,
and ending with Alaska (EA#171) and Hawaii (EA#172).       

The 4-digit CEA code generally is the FIPS code for the metropolitan area 
serving as the CEA's node.  Codes for the 38 nonmetropolitan nodes (areas) 
were assigned and are distinguished by having "95" in the first two
positions.     

The 5-digit county code is simply the 2-digit State FIPS code followed by
the 3-digit county FIPS code.      

The 2-digit area-type code is "08" for records related to CEA's and is "09"
for records related to economic areas.  All county records have a digit
other  than "0" in the first position  indicating the initial assignment
status of the county in the economic area redefinition process; the second
digit in the county type code is "0" if the initial assignment was not
changed, it is "1"  in cases where the assignment was changed during the
analytical refinement  processes, and it is "2" for the two cases where the
CEA assignments of counties were changed following public comment on their
preliminary assignments. Initial assignment status codes are:             

       Code   Meaning

        1   A CEA's nodal county within an MSA or NECMA
        2   A CEA's nodal county within a PMSA
        3   A CEA's nonmetropolitan node
        4   Part of the Main Labor Hinterlands for a CEA node
        5   Part of the Newspaper-Readership Hinterlands for a CEA node
        6   Part of the Secondary Labor Hinterlands for a CEA Node 
        7   One of 68 counties requiring special assignment processes    

Note:  Lamar and Forrest counties in Mississippi were declared in late 1994 
by OMB to constitute the new Hattiesburg MSA.  County codes for these 
counties in EACODES.FIN do not reflect this change.  They would each be 
given an area-type code of 10 to reflect their current status.  This change
did not affect the development of the Hattiesburg Component Economic Area.

Hinterland assignments are made only if a candidate county is contiguous to 
at least one county already assigned to a CEA.   Subject to that constraint:
The main labor hinterlands are nonnodal counties whose main commuting flow
is  (1) directly to a CEA node, or (2) to another nonnodal county whose main
flow is  directly to a CEA node, or (3) to another nonnodal county whose
main flow is to another nonnodal county whose main flow is directly to a CEA
node.  Newspaper-readership hinterlands are nonnodal counties, not in the
main labor hinterlands,  whose main source of newspapers is within a CEA
node or the main labor  hinterlands.  Secondary labor hinterlands are
counties that require the newspaper-readership hinterlands in  order to
establish contiguity or a main commuting flow to a county in one of the
emerging CEA's.  

The count fields provide the number of subordinate areas within each larger
area.  They are not meaningful in all records.  The count of CEA's is 
meaningful only for economic area records (type code 09) and the count of 
counties is meaningful only for economic area and CEA records (type codes
09 and 08).    

The name on each county record reflects that used in the reports of  county
data from the 1990 census; CEA and economic area names reflect the 
metropolitan area names used in OMB announcements and the nonmetropolitan
node names--usually the largest cities within the associated CEA's.    

Economic areas including a CMSA are always named for the CMSA and this name
is  preceded by the @ symbol in the file.  The names of CEA's that have
PMSA's as  their nodes are preceded by the # symbol.  The names of economic
areas or CEA's that are named after nonmetropolitan nodes are preceded by
the * symbol.  All other CEA's  have MSA's or NECMA's as their nodes.